Feed Bonkingstein

I was at my mom's house up in Spooner the other day and I noticed her huge barrel of treats. I couldn't help but ask her about it and her response was pretty astute.

She proceeded to tell me that every time she sees some kind of power food or energy gel listed for sale in one of the various bicycling/skiing/running magazines, she immediately buys a couple boxes. She then just throws all the stuff into a jar by the door for those times when the Bonk gets her while she's out riding (it also provides pocket fodder for when she's heading out for a ride).

A couple years ago I wrote a story about the Bonk for Silent Sports which detailed the time I was scavenging discarded GU packets from the road side in the hopes that I could squeeze out just a pellet of fuel (I was in a bad state...hey if anybody still has a copy of that article, could you copy it and send it to me, I can't find the original anywhere). That darn Bonk gets us, and you don't want to be an innocent bystander between a bonking athlete and any kind of food.

The one thing I've found out is that in the midst of a Bonk binge...I'm capable of eating ANYTHING!!!! I've eaten...forget it...I'm not getting into it...

The point of this story is that even though some nasty gel bar from bike nashbar looks like a texture and a flavor you'd NEVER want to put in your mouth (thus it being on sale presumably), well, chances are it'd still be a good idea to have a few of those discount bars around so that nobody looses any limbs when you start frothing at the mouth like Bonkingstein.

So get a big oaken barrel and fill it up with nasty power gel and leave it out where a Bonking athlete can find a bit of relief.